All Blacks Aim For History In Rugby World Cup final

New Zealand are aiming to become the first team to ever retain the Rugby World Cup when they meet Australia in today’s sell-out Twickenham final.

More than 80,000 fans will see the All Blacks start as favourites, having lost only three games out of 53 since lifting the Webb Ellis Cup in 2011.

It will be the first time the All Blacks and Australia – the world’s top-ranked sides – have met in the final.

Both are double winners but no country has won the tournament three times.

However, Australia – whose winning run to the final has included victories over England, Wales and Scotland – have been revived by coach Michael Cheika.

Cheika, who took over a struggling Australia side 12 months ago, led the Wallabies to their first win over New Zealand in four years as they won the southern hemisphere’s Rugby Championship in August.

And the former Leinster coach has laughed off media suggestions in New Zealand that he and his players have deliberately avoided referring to the team as the All Blacks in an effort to remove some of the mystique around their opponents.